February Readers Recommend

Swamplandia!
St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves: Stories
The Fates Will Find Their Way: A Novel
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky
Townie: A Memoir
West of Here
The Harlem Renaissance
The Instructions
Ruth and the Green Book
Before I Fall
My Ántonia
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: Stories
The Accidental Buddhist
The Summer Before the Dark
Martha Quest

Mildred Pierce

Oh, my.  I haven't posted in awhile.  I've been lost in a whirlwind of re-reading some classic self-help tomes.  However, I did manage to squeeze in some Mildred Pierce.  What a fun little piece of work that was.  I so enjoy getting some inside scoop on the sexual politics of the early 20th century.  Man, it must've sucked to be a woman in those days, or any days prior to this one for that matter.  We've come a long way, baby.

I picked this book up because I saw they were making a mini-series of it on HBO, and I wanted to be prepared.  I'm so glad I did.  It's a gem.  It's all about a single mother trying to support her children in the midst of the great depression.  She's got a deadbeat ex and no marketable skills aside from her cooking.  Girlfriend opens a successful restaurant and manages to thrive in a desperate economy.

Unfortunately for Mildred, her ungrateful daughter rules the roost and is the epitome of the bad seed.  Thus, the two become quite a quarrelsome pair, and they get some serious domestic violence on.  Joan Crawford won an Oscar for her movie portrayal of Pierce, which seems entirely appropriate since she had no qualms about beating the hell out of her own children.

Such fun.  Such drama.  I need to rent the original before the HBO version airs.  Join me.  We'll dish.  Kate Winslet plays the new Mildred, by the way.  I lean more toward Joan, but we'll see how it goes.

Alice Munro

Could she possibly be more talented?  I just finished Too Much Happiness and Runaway.  For some reason I tend to stay away from short stories, but I'm so glad I made an exception.  These stories are just haunting me.  Nobody can break a heart like Munro.  I'm curious about her personal life.  She clearly knows sorrow.  It's so gratifying to read fabulous books back to back.  

I read Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage years ago and remember being utterly impressed, so I can't account for why it took me so long to return to this author.  I'm just glad I did.  Once again, I'm having trouble picking up anything new because I fear it will suffer in comparison.  Suggestions anyone?  I'm all ears.